The blast in the power unit of the mine in Soma, around 75 miles northeast of the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, triggered an electricity outage, making the lifts unusable and leaving hundreds of workers stranded underground.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan cancelled a day trip to Albania originally scheduled for Wednesday to head to the disaster site.

The country has poor health and safety record in mining, particularly coal, in May 2010, a gas explosion killed 30 miners again in Zonguldak province.